With new 'Wicked' book, Gregory Maguire talks Elphaba legacy, 'tender moments of agony'

USA Today

25-03-2025

With new 'Wicked' book, Gregory Maguire talks Elphaba legacy, 'tender moments of agony'
Gregory Maguire says publishing a 'Wicked' prequel on the heels of the wildly successful movie adaptation may seem like 'leaping after low hanging fruit,' but it's a story he's been waiting to tell for 30 years.
'Elphie: A Wicked Childhood,' out now from HarperCollins, is Maguire's eighth book in the "Wicked" universe, and this one tells the story of the titular green witch's youngest years. Many scenes of Elphaba's childhood were among the cuts in Maguire's 'hefty brick of manuscript pages' when the book was first published in 1995, he tells USA TODAY.
This prequel fills in gaps in Elphaba's story for fans who have supported "Wicked" for three decades.
'Those two little scenes fell on the cutting room floor, as it were, of my office, and I never forgot them. I just put them in a glass of warm water and tended them for 30 years,' Maguire says. 'I was never going to do anything with them, but in the last 30 years – that's almost half my life – I have seen my little aberration, my little fan fiction attempt to go to Oz and see what it looks like to me, turned into an enterprise and a mythology that is long going to outlast my lifetime.'
'Elphie' gives a closer look at iconic 'Wicked' character
'Elphie' follows the young witch from birth until enrolling in Shiz University, with a special emphasis on events that happen during ages 7 and 12. Maguire borrows from his own Catholic upbringing here – age 7 is considered 'the age of reason,' believed to be when a child can distinguish between right and wrong. And 12, on the cusp of puberty, is a ripe time for developing a sense of identity.
Most of the book is set in Quadling Country, where Elphaba's father is a missionary. 'Elphie' gives a clearer look at the dynamics between Elphaba and her sister Nessarose, as well as her parents, Frex and Melena. Readers will also get a glimpse of Nanny, Shell (Elphaba's brother) and Turtle Heart, the Quadling glassblower who Melena and Frex come to know intimately. Most striking are the early hints at magic for the Thropp sisters, plus Elphaba's discovery of the speaking animal populations of Oz.
The prequel also gives a more direct glimpse into Elphie's mind than the original book. Much of "Wicked" is told from the perspective of Glinda, Boq, Fiyero and others, an intentional decision by Maguire to give an outsider's look at Elphaba and how the world treats her. Now, he's flipping that on its head.
'I don't want to go to my happy grave without having put my stamp on what I think might have helped make Elphaba the person she is when she arrives at university,' Maguire says.
Holding space for Cynthia Erivo, Idina Menzel and all the Elphabas
Maguire's dedication in 'Elphie' couldn't be more fitting, reading: 'For Idina Menzel and for Cynthia Erivo and for all the Elphabas, past and to come.'
He's met Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth (the original Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, on Broadway) as well as Erivo and Ariana Grande, saying they treat him like 'a beloved cousin' and always make time to chat with his kids.
He even visited the "Wicked" movie set for a day, watching Erivo and Grande film the touching Ozdust Ballroom dance scene.
'I'm living testimony to anybody who wants to know that there is no glycerin drops in Cynthia Erivo's eyes to propel those tears down her cheeks,' Maguire says. 'There were at least five times over the course of several days where I just wanted to break through the set and grab both women by the elbows and rush them to safety. I was devastated to see them perform such excruciating and tender moments of agony, it was devastating to watch. I felt so bad that I'd written anything that brought them to have to do this for a week.'
It has to be said that the 'Wicked' novels are very different from the stage and movie adaptations, green protagonist included. But Maguire didn't feel any pressure as he stepped back into Elphaba's cape to write "Elphie."
'I hold Elphaba as portrayed by Idina Menzel and Elphaba as portrayed by Cynthia Erivo, and Elphaba as portrayed by any other actress I've seen play her or any high school audition tape that's been sent, they're all Elphaba to me,' Maguire says. 'I can embrace them all and I can hold them all because … Elphaba is still in my head and cannot be upgraded by the success of popular entertainment.'
'Wicked' movie prompts fans to revisit Maguire novels
Since the Jon M. Chu adaptation catapulted the green- and pink-hued story back into pop culture stardom, many readers have revisited Maguire's novel. Some of them read the novel as kids (an ill-advised read, considering the novel's mature elements) and now are surprised by the story's political undertones. The novel takes place in an Oz that's rife with political turmoil – populism and propaganda help the Wizard control and target speaking animals and Elphaba after she refuses to work for him.
Maguire's motivation was to explore how calling someone wicked or evil is 'a tool used by oppressors.' When he was writing, he says he was reflecting backward at World War II and the Vietnam War. He expected critics to say his plot was too "retro." But in recent years, reviews have called the story 'prophetic' and remarked on the continued relevance of its political themes, especially polarization. Maguire says he would prefer it remain retro.
'I'm bloody grateful that 'Wicked' exists and that it can talk to people,' Maguire says. 'It's not a polemical argument. It's not an op-ed piece. It's a novel about characters living as well as they can in difficult times. And really, that's what art is for is to give us something in which we can find ourselves and for which we can draw strength.'
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Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at [e-mail].